Here's a quick recap of my experience at Nationals this week. Please excuse grammatical and spelling errors. We rolled back into town 2:00 AM this morning and I'm still a bit groggy.

Practice Session (Friday 10:00 AM)

Lanes were freshly prepped before our session with the Team layout. Balls thrown outside of 10 did not recoverStronger balls over reactedFound a shot similar to my normal THS line, standing 25 and targeting 15. As long as I didn't miss right, I had about a 2 to 3 boards error margin (to the left) and was around the pocket with the Blend 10 OSW. The ball was reading early and had a nice predictable continuous smooth arc.

Take-away strategy: Use Blend 10 OSW, adjust line as necessary, step down to Motiv Venom Panic if necessary for more length and angle to pocket.

Team Session (Saturday 5:00 PM)

Take everything I said above and throw it out the window. Although the practice pair was laid out the same, just about every characteristic was different. Anything outside of 13 failed to recover. My smooth arc from the day before was gone. My ball skidded about 2/3's of the way down before rolling and then turning sharply left. I wound up having to stand about 35 and targeting 15. Margin for error.....zip, zero, zilch, nada, the big donut! Miss the arrow by 1 board and I had either a wash or was through the nose.

First game was horrible, I spent just about the entire game looking for a line. Finding the pocket was not the problem, carry was. The second game was decent, third game was forgettable as the lane had broken down and I lost my line. With the snappy back end, chopping was a problem and I missed a number of easy spares.

Singles/Doubles (Sunday 1:00 PM)

With the ball skid problem, I changed my game plan and brought my most aggressive ball, the Mastermind Einstein. I did not bring it for Team thinking that I didn't need it. I found a line immediately with it, standing 28 and targeting 13. This really shows how much oil volume there is on the lane, my most aggressive ball only needed a compact arc to the pocket. Once again, finding the pocket was not the problem, carry was. By the end of Doubles, my ball was hitting nose high so I moved a couple boards to the left and played the same target. The ball slid by and left a wash. I moved my feet back over 1 board to the right, the ball again slid by. Contrary to what I always do, I decided to move 3 boards over to the right, BAM, I was back in the pocket. This was good for a game and a half. A this point, the lanes were broken down enough for me to play my original line with the OSW.

Same as the previous day, finding the pocket was easier than carrying strikes. Chopping and ball deflection were also issues.

Personal Thoughts

This was a frustrating Nationals for me. For me, practice hurt more than it helped as the practice pair was nothing like the actual tournament pair. Obviously no pair of lanes will be the same but should they have been this different? Are we not are paying $150 for similar conditions?

Positives

I improved from last year +51 pins overallI was able to hit the pocket often (carry was another matter)I picked up 100% of my 10 pinsI won 2 brackets (some may not consider this a positive seeing how much I paid into brackets)

If I had to do it again, I would go aggressive from the beginning. My weak balls just did a lot of thrashing in the front and didn't do what I wanted.

Great review, I'm so confused on the pattern. Everyone is having trouble so far your about the 10th person I know. Sounds like I just need to go, have fun, and not lose all my money in the casinos. The one person I know who had success said he had to throw the ball harder on a tight line.

Great review, I'm so confused on the pattern. Everyone is having trouble so far your about the 10th person I know. Sounds like I just need to go, have fun, and not lose all my money in the casinos. The one person I know who had success said he had to throw the ball harder on a tight line.

Everyone is going to struggle on this pattern. Its brutally tough. There's a lot of oil, and its almost dead flat. There's is almost no miss room to hit the pocket, let alone try to throw strikes. Scores will be low for everyone, even the guys that win.

_________________________
Nowadays, I open bowl practice and go to Nationals every year.

Did team event at 5 on Saturday and Dbl/Sgl at 9 on Sunday. Getting there was an adventure - My wife and I drove up hwy 395 from SoCal on Friday. We get past Bishop (about half-way) and started up the hill and the temp dropped from about 70 down to 30 in 20 minutes. Rain turned to snow. Normally, I don't care about snow - I grew up in the mtns of Washington and went to college north of Calgary AB, but we are on SoCal tires which meant I started to skate around - so turn around and go back to Bishop. Next morning, passes were still closed (they opened around 9) so we went through Nevada - pretty drive, and only a half hour longer. But boy - tired. Got there, checked in to our hotel in Virginia City and then headed to the center to bowl.

Was BRUTAL. Started out Saturday sticking badly. Swapped out soles which meant I was skating. My wife ran to the Storm booth and got me a couple soles to fill the gap and, by the 8th frame of the first game, I was now okay with my feet and had to calm down.

It wasn't a whole lot of help. My typical game is down 5 or down 10 - which meant I was flirting with an absolute out of bounds. Outside 7 was totally out of bounds. I was able, for a while, to take my dull MarvelS and roll straight down 5 and it would flip and roll in - game 2 was 223 - but when that line broke down, I couldn't slide it left as I'd then grab lines from others, and I couldn't move my feet left because I'd be throwing right at the out of bounds. Day 1, 106 (soles suck), 223, 149.

Day 2 was just bad. I started with what I'd figured out Saturday, going down 5 and hoping I might make myself a little bit of a wall. Bunch of spares (which I'm VERY proud of - we all were more proud of our spares than our strikes, honestly) and 150. second game was also pretty decent, and 176. Really, if FELT like these two games were HUGE, LOL. Third game, my little line had gone completely away so I tried going to my A game, which is down 10 - that was OK, but several others were in and around that so it didn't last long. Splits, washouts . . . 133.

Fourth game was strike or nothing - 143. Bah. One spare, 10th. Game 5, moved WAY left and used my Crux. Slowed it way way down and just let the ball flare just before the pocket. picked up a few spares, missed a 10, 170. Game 6 and I'm just done. 121.

Lessons? Get on a team that will work together. Everyone just bowled as individuals so we were crossing each other up, nobody worked together to create some friction. . . Start spares with only plastic - the hook was so unreliable that I couldn't get to anything. If I had been able to hit my spares, I would have been MUCH better off - strike for show, spare for dough.

That certainly is brutal mmalsed. Surprised you had so much trouble on the lanes.

Is the pattern playing any different than last year? Can't remember those of you that have recapped if you went last year to El Paso.

One thing I am working on this summer, is spare shooting with my plastic at everything. Not bowling in league, so will have to get my own practice in to do that. I have played around with it and don't have trouble doing that, but just not as consistent as I am with my reactive balls at some leaves.

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